Robbinsdale Plans for Future of Road and Sewer Reconstruction

This year will not be a year when Robbinsdale residents have to contend with too much road reconstruction in their neighborhoods or around town, according to city leaders. Those leaders say it’s a deliberate effort to continue to plan for future reconstruction needs of the city’s rapidly aging underground infrastructure.

“It’s our aim to try and replace that underground infrastructure before we see a lot of failures, which is, of course an impingement to the service we provide the residents,” said Public Works Director Richard McCoy. “Having a plan that addresses that in a logical manner is the best for the lowest cost of the infrastructure in its lifetime.”

McCoy said the city records show the first pipes were installed in 1925, and the underground infrastructure of the water and sanitary sewer systems rapidly developed right along with the first-ring suburb’s development in the middle of the 20th century. 

A Robbinsdale engineering intern takes measurements last summer as part of the city getting ready for future road reconstruction projects.

“We’ve been doing reconstruction here in Robbinsdale as pretty much since I started, so 25 years,” he said. “We’re still playing catch-up. There was a decade there in the 90s where not a lot of reconstruction was done, so that kind of put us behind the 8-ball a little bit, so right now it’s a bit of a balance between trying to get the work done before the pipes fail but doing it in a manner that’s financially prudent.”

McCoy said the goal is to keep up with the pace of reconstruction to avoid any major malfunctions or catastrophic failures.

“Certainly we want it so that the residents don’t think twice about the infrastructure that’s in the ground. They want to be able to turn their faucet on and get clean water. They want to be able to get a shower, use the bathroom, and do the laundry and not have back-ups,” said McCoy. “So, us as the city making sure that we’re replacing infrastructure in a timely fashion will help to keep all that in the background.”

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